When do you abbreviate words in a case name, and what happens to In re and et al.?
The caption says "Mortgage Bankers Association," but every citation you find says "Mortg. Bankers Ass'n." When do you shorten the words in a case name, where does the list of abbreviations come from, and what do you do with "et al.," "In the Matter of" and "ex rel."?
If your court's style manual keeps its own list, reply below with it.
The team’s answer
Short answer. Two different things happen to a case name. First it is trimmed, the same way everywhere: first party on each side, no titles, no "et al.," and procedural phrases cut down to In re or ex rel. Then, only inside a citation, listed words are abbreviated. In a sentence of your own, you write those words out, apart from a few very common ones.
Trimming the caption [Convention]
Caption: PEREZ, SECRETARY OF LABOR, et al. v. MORTGAGE BANKERS ASSOCIATION et al.
Citation: Perez v. Mortg. Bankers Ass'n, 575 U.S. 92 (2015).
The official title and both "et al." went. Mortgage and Association took their listed short forms because this is a citation.
Caption: TRAIN, ADMINISTRATOR, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, et al. v. NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL, INC., ET AL.
Citation: Train v. Nat. Res. Def. Council, Inc., 421 U.S. 60 (1975).
The administrator is left with his surname, and Natural, Resources and Defense are shortened. "Inc." stays.
Procedural phrases [Convention] Openings such as "In the Matter of" or "Petition of" shrink to In re, and "on the relation of" shrinks to ex rel.
A 2024 New York Surrogate's Court case is captioned "In the Matter of the Accounting by Susan F. Weber, as Trustee of the Michael S. Weber Trust" and goes on to name the beneficiary and the will. In a citation:
In re Weber, 85 Misc. 3d 727 (N.Y. Sur. Ct. 2024).
A 2023 Supreme Court caption reads "UNITED STATES et al. ex rel. SCHUTTE et al. v. SUPERVALU INC. et al." In a citation it becomes United States ex rel. Schutte v. SuperValu Inc., 598 U.S. 739 (2023), and all three "et al." are gone. And when a state is a party in its own courts, it is usually just "State."
Where the abbreviations come from [Convention]
Use the list in the manual you follow. The Bluebook and ALWD each publish one, and a free public-domain citation manual has its own. The lists don't agree on every word, so pick one and stay consistent.
Don't shorten a geographic name when that place is one of the parties: South Dakota, not S.D., when the state is suing or being sued.
Some manuals also let you shorten other long words to save space if the result is unambiguous. When in doubt, write the word out.
In your own sentences [Convention]
Keep words whole. The exceptions are initials everyone knows and a short list of words such as "&," "Ass'n," "Co.," "Corp." and "Inc." Manuals differ a little on that set, so check yours.
Text: The Court decided Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass'n in 2015.
Citation: Perez v. Mortg. Bankers Ass'n, 575 U.S. 92 (2015).
Short forms [Convention]
In re can drop out of a later short form (Weber, 85 Misc. 3d at 741), and an ex rel. case is shortened to the relator's name (Schutte). Some court manuals allow keeping In re, so check yours.
Common mistakes
Copying the caption whole: "Perez, Secretary of Labor, et al. v. Mortgage Bankers Association et al."
Abbreviating in a sentence of your own: "In Perez v. Mortg. Bankers Ass'n, the Court held..."
Taking the case name from the U.S. Reports running head. Perez's page heads read "PEREZ v. MORTGAGE BANKERS ASSN.," the Court's house style rather than the national citation form.
Writing "In the Matter of" or "on the relation of" out in a citation.
Read more
The Abbreviations chapter (its opening is free to read): https://citationcode.com/book/abbreviations (opens in a new tab)
Supreme Court case names, each checked against its source: https://citationcode.com/examples/how-to-cite-a-us-supreme-court-opinion (opens in a new tab)